5 1/4" floppies

[Edlin]

I'm so excited that I was given back a computer that I had installed a 5 1/4" floppy and a 3 .25 floppy, and a CD Drive. I just wanted anyone to know if they want any 5 1/4" floppy copied to a 3.25 floppy, or visa versa, I would be happy to, just for the cost of postage. It's IBM compatible. It was such a blessing to get this computer back, I had given it to the person for good, but apparantley she got a brand new computer and thought mine was for the dump, I am so, so, so glad she gave it back, it really made my day! Just send me a private message, and also, no porn. Thanks, Sandy

P.S. If I posted this in the wrong place, please move it, I'm always posting in the wrong place. Sorry

 

[Chad Stanford]

5 1/4 floppies

5 1/4 floppies

Hi Sandy,
Saw this old post of yours and your offer to copy 5 1/4 disks to 3/5. I've been trying to get a 5 1/4 drive to work on my computer which is running Win XP Pro and it wants to format the disk. Ugh! Can you help? Please contact me at matildatoo@aol.com. Thanks.

 

[Edlin]

We tried

We tried

I did make the copies, but I think the program was so old it would not work on his new computer. I have another request for old family history to be taken off the 5 1/4" diskettes so we'll see how that goes, better I hope.

 

[BG101]

Hi Sandy,
Saw this old post of yours and your offer to copy 5 1/4 disks to 3/5. I've been trying to get a 5 1/4 drive to work on my computer which is running Win XP Pro and it wants to format the disk. Ugh! Can you help? Please contact me at matildatoo@aol.com. Thanks.

Is the BIOS set for a 5¼" drive? If so (and if there's an option) which capacity? WinXP won't format a 5¼" disk (and will ONLY format a 3½" disk at 1.44Mb) so you will need to use WinImage, OmniFlop or something similar to format disks. However, with a correctly aligned drive you should be able to read, write and erase files on disks formatted to any capacity supported by the drive

Try this by formatting and using a blank disk first to determine the drive is actually working properly in your computer.

Windows will assume a disk is not formatted if the BIOS settings and drive type don't match. On my system XP sometimes gets it wrong and thinks A: is the 5¼" and B: is the 3½" with the same resulting message, complete with the appropriate floppy icons swapped over in My Computer, necessitating a reboot. Only from a cold boot, mind you, seemingly never from resume.


BG

 

[Edlin]

Copywrite

Copywrite

Actually it was a copywrite game, I was thinking more on the line of old files, or old pictures someone was wanting copied. I think the original game was most likely one of those types that you can only install so many times, then it's done. I did copy the files onto a 3.25 disk (since it was legal to make one back up disk), but it would not work on the original disk, so I didn't see it working on the 3.25 one either. I remember copyiipc or whatever that program was that would allow you to copy a backup disk of copywrited games, but I don't think that would work either since the original disk would not install. Anyway, after I copied them I took them to my new computer and I could read the 3.25 disk, so I know it copied. Well, enough of that, and even if I am grumpy on voting, I will vote.

 

[MikeS]

Is the BIOS set for a 5¼" drive? If so (and if there's an option) which capacity? WinXP won't format a 5¼" disk (and will ONLY format a 3½" disk at 1.44Mb) so you will need to use WinImage, OmniFlop or something similar to format disks. However, with a correctly aligned drive you should be able to read, write and erase files on disks formatted to any capacity supported by the drive
<snip>
BG

------
This comes up time and again; WinXP *WILL* format pretty well any MS/PC format, but you will have to use format in a cmd window with the /T and /N options. It will not work with a DD 5 1/4 *drive* though, so you have to use a 1.2M HD drive, even for 360K DD disks. And of course many of the newer BIOSs have limited support for floppies.

I hope Chad isn't still looking for help after all this time...

 

[Andrew P.]

CopyIIPC doesn't always work

CopyIIPC doesn't always work

I did copy the files onto a 3.25 disk (since it was legal to make one back up disk), but it would not work on the original disk, so I didn't see it working on the 3.25 one either. I remember copyiipc or whatever that program was that would allow you to copy a backup disk of copywrited games, but I don't think that would work either since the original disk would not install. Anyway, after I copied them I took them to my new computer and I could read the 3.25 disk, so I know it copied

Some of the old copy-protected diskettes used schemes such as illegal formats, damaged sectors, or even physical damage to a sector, i.e., a hole punched into the diskette, to make them "genuine". In some cases CopyIIPC is able to copy them faithfully, and in others it fails. When the program starts up, it checks the diskette for the intentional error, and if it finds it, the program proceeds normally. Some diskette copy programs "fix" the error while copying, making the copy unusable. The diskette would appear to have been successfully copied, but, in fact, wasn't.

 

[BG101]

Thanks Mike, I had tried using the command prompt but hadn't thought of using the switches.

WinImage is nice and easy to use and supports all the IBM formats anyway I use OmniFlop or the CatWeasel image tool for non-IBM formats.

Being new to this forum I've yet to explore most of what has already been posted here





BG